News of Israel's Achievements and Heartwarming Stories from the Jewish State.

Israeli Remedies for a Longer Life

Israelis have the 8th longest life-expectancy
in world according to the latest World Health Organization figures.Israeli medical treatments and devices are
extending lives all over the world. Here
are some of the recent Israeli news items relating just to the areas of cancer,
cardiology, neuroscience and diabetes.

I am confident that most readers in their
lifetimes will see an end to the deadly effect of the majority of today’s cancers
and can be proud that Israeli scientists will be major contributors to this
achievement. For example, the UK’s National Health Service just
has approved the funding of patients receiving the pioneering melanoma (skin
cancer) treatment developed by Professor
Jacob Schachter of the Sheba hospital in Tel Hashomer. Meanwhile in the States, surgeons at Mercy
Medical Center at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have reported that MarginProbe from
Israel’s Dune Medical has reduced the number of repeat breast-cancer operations
by 75%.And many aggressive brain tumors
can now be cured using Novocure’s
electrode treatment, invented by Israeli Professor Yoram Palti.

Leukemia’s days are numbered thanks to
pipeline treatments such as Astarabine
from Israel’s BioSight.and
BL-8040
from Israel’s Bioline
Rx.And Israel’s Gamida Cell
reported good results from US trials of its NiCord
blood cancer treatment.Finally, Weizmann
Institute’s groundbreaking prostate
cancer treatment has now been approved by Israel’s Ministry of Health and
is being administered
to patients at Beilinson Hospital.

But prevention is better than cure, so I
was pleased to read that researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
Israel’s Technion Institute have developed enhanced micro-emulsion liquids that
produce a powerful antioxidant
anti-cancer protection protein called Nrf2.

It warms my heart to read that so many
cardiology treatments and innovations have been developed by Israelis.UK medical journal The Lancet reported the first one-hour implants of the interatrial
shunts from Israel’s V-Wave
administered into 10 Canadian patients suffering poor left ventricular function,
who were then discharged home next morning.Surgeons performing a multicenter clinical trial of the laser system and
unique catheters from Israel’s Eximo
successfully unblocked
the arteries of 20 patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) - some of whom otherwise required bypass surgery
or leg amputation.

Again, prevention of heart disease would
avoid the need for the above treatments and devices, so let’s wish good luck to
Israel’s Lycored for its award-winning
supplement Cardiomato
that lowers oxidized LDL cholesterol and reduces systolic blood pressure.And perhaps the best news is that new Israeli
Education Ministry guidelines prohibit selling or serving of sweets, snacks,
and sugary or fatty foods to Israeli school and kindergarten students. They must now be offered healthier
substitutes such as low-fat spreadable cheeses, avocado, whole-wheat pasta
and bread, fruit and vegetables.

In the field of Neuroscience, nearly
660,000 people have viewed the video that showed Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center
surgeons curing an Israeli woman of Parkinson’s
using the focused ultrasound brain surgery of Israel’s Insightec.And the communication device for
ALS and other "Locked in" patients from Israel’s EyeControl
won its inventors £32,000 of funding thanks to public votes in the International
on-line competition "The
Venture".Israelis should certainly
have no problem sleeping thanks to Israeli startup 2breathe
Technologies, which has developed a sensor and smartphone app to induce
users to breathe slower, relax and fall asleep.And Israel’s Itamar
Medical has reported that 60 international hospitals have now adopted its Total
Sleep Solution which treats Sleep Apnea – a known cause of heart attacks.

Diabetics will be interested to know that
researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that the gene
p16 enhances insulin
production and have partly reversed diabetes in lab tests.Further down the treatment pipeline, Israeli
biotech Oramed
had success in the Phase IIb study of its oral
insulin capsule, designed to replace injected delayed-release insulin.Meanwhile, Israel’s Frutarom – developers of
Portusana, an extract
of the herb purslane - have confirmed its positive effects on blood sugar levels in
adults with Type 2 Diabetes.Finally, type
2 diabetes may be preventable,
thanks to a behavioral analytics engine and risk meter developed by Israel’s Sweetch.

What is really astounding is that these Israeli
developments (and many more) all occurred during the last 3 months.I haven’t even got room to include the areas
of fighting infections, autoimmune diseases and life-saving medical
devices.I’ll report on those on another
occasion.